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aespa is caught in the ongoing feud between SM Entertainment’s Lee Soo-man and the company’s executives, who are mudslinging each other in public.
On February 16, Co-CEO Lee Sung-soo revealed that owner Lee Soo-man’s behavior is causing a dent in SM Entertainment and the artists’ careers in jeopardy. Co-CEO Lee Sung-soo accused owner Lee Soo-man of delaying the group's comeback with unnecessary changes, which reportedly brought the girls to tears.
MYs, aespa's fandom, were disheartened to learn that the girls cried after learning that their much-awaited comeback was delayed due to the company’s internal politics and issues.
In response to the ongoing media reports, a fan wrote on social media,
“That bad old man.”
aespa’s fans trend “Justice for aespa” as their much-awaited comeback gets delayed
MYs took to social media to trend “Justice for aespa” as their much-awaited comeback got delayed due to the ongoing feud between Lee Soo-man and SM Entertainment’s Co-CEOs Lee Sung-soo and Tak Young-jun over the company’s business policies.
MYs are angry, upset, and frustrated that the Black Mamba singers had to bear the brunt of the company’s poor management skills, which even brought them to tears. Fans are of the opinion that the girls deserve more music and comebacks, considering the talented new girl groups around them are making waves.
SM Entertainment’s Co-CEOs Lee Sung-soo and Tak Young-jun lashed out at the company’s owner Lee Soo-man for jeopardizing their artists’ careers for his personal interests, particularly the talented Gen 4 girl group.
On February 16, Lee Sung-soo decided to go public by revealing that the Black Mamba girls had originally planned to to make a comeback on February 20. However, during the album's production process, Lee Soo-man ordered the group’s A&R team to change the lyrics of their comeback song to make references to ‘environment,’ ‘tree planting,’ and ‘sustainability.’
The A&R team argued that the concept doesn’t fit well with aespa, whose core concept is metaverse and the Kwangya universe. However, Lee Soo-man insisted repeatedly, causing co-CEO Lee Sung-soo to cancel the group's comeback due to creative issues.
Lee Sung-soo revealed that members Karina, Winter, Giselle, and Ningning shed tears after hearing that their new song would be scrapped and their comeback would be delayed.
“Parts of the lyrics include “just sustainability,” “lowering the degree by even one,” “co-existence,” and “greenism.” These words that have no relation to K-Pop at all appeared in the lyrics here and there. The early part of the song even contained “planting trees.” The aespa members were so upset they even got choked up [with tears].”
aespa members subtly shaded SM Entertainment on recent livestream
On February 16, Karina, Winter, Giselle, and NingNing hosted a surprise live for fans ahead of their upcoming concert. The Next Level singers shared their thoughts on their label, SM Entertainment, during the live stream.
Sharing their excitement, they revealed that they are preparing hard for their upcoming concert and will be unveiling their new song live for the fans. They also shared that they will showcase new choreographies and hope their fans enjoy them.
At one point, fans mentioned that the ticket prices were expensive, even for the online concert. The girls read out the comment out loud and sided with fans, expressing their disappointment with the high ticket prices.
“What? Do they have to pay to watch online? It’s also expensive (to watch) online. It costs [/krw]60000[/krw] (to watch online).”
The members agreed that the ticket prices were indeed expensive and expressed their disappointment.
“Even I am disappointed (for you guys).”
Fans noticed that the Next Level singers were subtly shading their company by expressing solidarity with fans.
The girls are now preparing to host their first Asia tour, SYNK : Hyper Line, at Jamsil Arena in Seoul on February 25.
